Making Vital Stats Vitally Useable

Background:  There is much individuals, public health departments, retailers, employers, schools, and others can do to lower the risk for diseases that harm people’s health.  Public health has data and well-defined interventions such as seat belts, smoking cessation, exercise, etc. that are known to directly and substantially improve health. However, public health data are often translated poorly into messages the public can understand and act on. Many public health messages are too complex, difficult to understand, and lacking in clear action steps.   

Program background:  Much of CDC’s public health data appears in academic journals and agency publications, such as the Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report (MMWR). In 2010, CDC introduced the CDC Vital Signs program to make data from its national surveillance systems accessible and relevant for multiple publics. Focused on a disease topic a month, the program uses a multi-format and multi-channel approach to reach audiences and call them to action. The fusion of science, communication, and a strong set of actions for multiple audiences, creates a highly effective, focused communication effort that is a model for other health efforts.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  CDC communication staff first developed a SWOT analysis for the CDC Vital Signs program. The analysis identified clear communication principles as an essential component of all Vital Signs products. Staff developed an overall communication plan built on a clear communication, multi-format, multi-channel campaign that is implemented monthly. Three CDC employees coordinate the program and the contributions of as many as 30 staff each month, ranging from CDC scientists to White House policy directors. The scientists and communicators jointly develop key messages from a new MMWR scientific article and clear communication principles. The key messages are used to create a clear communication four-page Fact Sheet as the basis for many other traditional and social media communication products. 

Conclusions:  CDC Vital Signs is meeting the challenge to translate scientific research into explanations, recommendations, and effective actions usable by multiple publics. Channel tracking measures indicate CDC Vital Signs has cumulatively reached a potential audience of 3.7 billion people and generated 6100 stories. Web surveys of CDC Vital Signs audience show 95% believe CDC Vital Signs “explains issues well”, 80% say it gives “the right amount of information they need to take action", 61% use it as a "tool that provides easy-to-understand information” and 43% use it to "present the health problem and what can be done about it to others.”

Implications for research and/or practice:  Today’s multiple sources of daily information and the brief viewing or reporting time allotted to any topic makes public health communication particularly difficult.  Often a sound bite is not sufficient to explain a technical scientific finding, although that is all the public may have time or attention to digest. We must create our messages through close collaboration between scientists and communicators, “start where the audiences are” and use formats and channels they prefer to ensure that they have been exposed to vital messages.  The CDC Vital Signs Program provides a good model that uses this approach.